that cracked me up! ha ha!

actually, it was a friend on another thread advising me to do the side movements too. along with balancing my workouts. she said we should do upper and lower body, because it revs the metabolism or burns more calories or something. just passing it on

Welcome Gettin Fit! those sound like great goals.

ok! I'm FINALLY feeling much better mentally. i've been reading these forums constantly, and last night i think something clicked with me. i was reading nola and other posters talk about how being short and curvy is a GREAT thing! and all the advantages to being shorter and so on. had a moment glancing in the dim light in the mirror looking at my hips area- thinking i look gooooood, curvy and short just like they were saying lol. i'm average height, so i never think about myself like i'm so short.

so late last night i wanted to do a short w/o. some jack knives(those are so hard!), punching in a squat, jumping, few push ups. really short, but mentally, i was thinking about my w/o in the morning. how i used to feel so great and proud of myself getting all sweaty...i'm going to do some REAL workouts today!

thanks for all who joined in this challenge. it's just not as motivating when we are by ourselves. but together we can motivate each other so much!

Ok, here's my intro on this thread. Though I've been fitter in the past, I consider myself back at the beginner level. It's been too long and I've put on too much weight!

Still have a little niggling cough, but I think since it is leaving, I can start now. I plan to start tomorrow with an easy walk at my new gym and sort of get myself acquainted.

I started 2011 with a basic PALA goal of just get one! Any which way you exercise just complete it! I have one more day on that and it is over.

I want to complete my next PALA award with a basic pattern of

• M W F -- 30 min cardio, probably basic walking
• T R -- 30 min Upper / lower weights.
• Sa, Su -- off or catch up a missed date.

to start getting a bit more formal and start adding the weight training back in. Probably from DVDs for now. Like kick it up a bit but still keep it a doable 30 min. The hardest thing right now for me is managing to slip in the workouts amid family life.

Wish me luck!
A.

I'm in! I'm training for rock climbing, and so I too am trying to master the pull-up (via machine).

I also started JM 6 weeks Abs - so that's another goal

OK, so I fell off the exercise wagon last week. No excuses, I lost motivation. But I'm back on it with gusto today and for the next 6 weeks. That's how long it is until I go back to the UK, and would love to look as good as I can by then to give everyone at home a shock!

Today I did week three c25k with an extra 3 min jog on the end, and then some bum and upper arm exercises. Was an hour workout in total.

I also avoided the birthday cake in the office, and so far have managed not to give in to any sort of snacking.

I hope everyone has a good week

welcome back astrophe and taking control! welcome to dcapulet too! everyone is welcome, from beginners to marathon runners. when i post i try to give an idea of what i did (to compare to later on) and the difficulty level. That's because we all have different levels of fitness even for different exercises. i'm good at lower body stuff, but can only do a few girl pushups. Also, it's interesting to compare because sometimes you had more energy than another day doing the same workout.

so let's all get those workouts in! we all have time to exercise, even if it's only for a few min.

i did get that workout in last night. it was random again lol. intervals of running stairs and whatever i could think of to throw in- jump rope, speed skaters, squats with 50# (my standard wt, not hard), punching, elevated bridges. really short, prob.15 mins.

Although, this workout was shorter than i intended, i'm glad i did it. Also, getting any exercise in when my kids are home and awake is an accomplishment. they are old enough not to need supervision all the time, but i still rarely actually exercise on the weekends or after school.

i can only do 3 'laps' of stairs at a time. by the end of the 3rd my legs can hardly keep going. i should be able to improve that by the end of this month.

Hi Katy,

Thanks for the welcome back and the message on my blog. If I'm honest, strength isn't one of my biggest areas of concerns I guess. Building up my cardio fitness is far more important to me. I do however want to work on toning my bum and thighs, so that when the fat disappears they look good underneath! Also trying to work on my upper arms, in the hope that building some muscle up there might help with the flab! I'm working up to 'proper' pressups, but at the moment can't even do one properly, will be well happy when I can manage just one!

I mainly use my resistance band to train my arms, and a combination of squats, lunges and leg lift things to work my bum. And then throw in some sit ups for the stomach with most workouts.

As well as c25k, I'm using a couple of old Davina DVDS, love her boxing one and then another one that's 60mins, was using a few of the biggest loser ones I downloaded too, but always end up going back to Davina. I do hope to one day have the strength to do the 60 min fat burning yoga one, right now I just can't manage most of the moves.

I guess you could say my workout 'regime' is kinda all over the place, but as long as I do something, I'm pretty happy for now! Esp in the mental Thai heat, any sort of exercise kills me!

No pun intended? After all the SHORT talk?

Taking control, I was really most concerned with building up my cardio base too. It's a great thing to have, I can tell you! Now that I have that very well under control, I am ready to kick the lifting up a notch. I already started this month, but after this week I'm going to start stressing more weight training than cardio, while not giving the cardio up. We've been doing a cardio challenge at the gym so I have been gung-ho cardio this month! Several of us have let lifting slide because of it. I wouldn't say I've let it slide, but let's just say my abs haven't been stressed here lately...at all. LOL!

for your abs try to do jack knives-make a 'V' shape bringing up your straight arms and legs. see how many you can do!


for the legs
no equipment required, but you'll want privacy.

with all of these, just see how many you can do, 3, 10, or 3 sets of 10. whatever level challenges you.

beginners
bridge- lay down on your back on a flat surface. bend your knees and keep your feet on the floor, hands at your sides. lift and lower your butt slowly without going all the way down. optional-squeeze your glutes or abs.

intermediate
elevated bridge. same position as before, except use something to elevate your feet. a step, weight bench, stack of books, whatever you can find. experiment with different heights to find what works for you. this really gets the hamstrings (back of the thigh)

advanced
1 leg elevated bridge. 1 leg in the air, the other on your elevated surface.

at first you may only be able to hold this for a few seconds. build up to doing 3 sets of 10.


Elaina i hadn't even realized the joke lol. i say short way too much.

Elliptical today was great -- it just felt so nice to be healthy again and not have this stupid cold! I'm having some problems with my DVD player but DH sais he'd look at it for me so I'll be ready to go tomorrow for weights.

A.

that's great! oh i love that feeling too, what a feeling to breathe again, instead of being stuffed up.

I did some exercises with the kids spread out over the evening. not lots of sweat going on, but i did get lots of elevated bridges done. a few of them were just 1 leg. no idea how many. my skinny as a rail 10 yr old son has surprisingly strong hams. he was doing them right with me. took me months of just doing basic bridges to work up to this lol.

how's everyone doing today?

i haven't done any countable exercising today. i had planned on it this afternoon, but i was feeling so tired. i'm still not sure if it was my lack of carbs lately or just afternoon slump. i'm experimenting with less grains. last 2 days i haven't had any grains. which for me is a big deal. i eat a lot of bread, cereal, pasta. sometimes i gave up pasta/rice in the fall because, it's so caloric. but i still ate ww bread, wraps, some cereal. so this was a whole new boat for me. so i AM eating lol. mostly veggies and protein-eggs,canned fish, lentils, sunflower seeds, nuts. pantry is pretty sparse, so my options are limited.